Governor's efforts to open up government benefit all Georgians

Posted: Wednesday, February 03, 1999

Hallelujah! Gov. Roy Barnes wants to let a little more sun shine on the state's public business. Our new chief executive has been a longtime supporter of openness in government affairs, but now he's got considerably more clout in accomplishing that worthy goal.

Barnes has introduced a bill that would require elected and appointed government officials to formally justify their efforts to keep their activities from public scrutiny.

Current open meetings laws require state and local governments to conduct most of their business in public, but exceptions allow meetings to be closed for private discussions of personnel matters, real estate purchases or consultation on legal issues with an attorney. The legislation Barnes has introduced calls for more accountability from public officials presiding over any government meeting closed to the public. The proposed change would require them to sign a sworn affidavit any time they close a meeting to the public, stating the reason for the closure and what will be discussed.

Officials also would have to post an agenda of items to be discussed in a meeting and make it publicly available. Anyone who doesn't comply with the law would be subject to a felony charge and face one to five years in prison.

The measure was introduced last week in the House, along with some welcome changes to open records laws. One bill allows fines of $100 for violations of the state law requiring governments to make their records available to the public. Deliberate, willful violations of the open records law would carry the same felony penalty as violations of the open meetings law.

One proposal clarifies the three-day time limit given to governments providing public documents to those, particularly media representatives who request them.

In the past, officials often have interpreted the three-day parameters as simply the time in which they have to file a response to requests for documents. Under the change, governments would have three days to hand over documents or submit a letter listing what records are available and when they can be picked up.

The agency also must list within three days any records it will not produce, and say why. It would also make more records available over the Internet.

Another change offered in the bill would make private companies paid to perform government functions comply with the open records law. The trend in local and state governments looking for ways to save money is toward ''privatization,'' where private firms contract to handle government services such as busing schoolchildren and operating prisons. We agree with Barnes, who said that private companies conducting public business are not exempt from public scrutiny.

''To the extent that a private company performs a public function, and gets public funds, their records are open,'' Barnes said.

All of these changes would make our government agencies and the decisions they make much more accountable to the people who foot the bills for their activities. Entirely too much of the public's business is conducted behind closed doors, in private without valid reasons.

Locally, Madison County has been undergoing a recall process because officials there have proceeded with county business without public knowledge or input.

These newspapers alone have filed numerous open records requests with the University of Georgia and the Athens-Clarke County government in the past year to gather information of public interest.

Barnes is on the right track and we encourage our state representatives to support the public interest and vote to enact these changes and others that lead to more open government.